数据仓库和OLAP是决策支持系统的重要组成部分。What-if分析是基于历史数据,对假设场景进行分析的重要手段,它可以为决策者提供重要的预测信息,是一种非常重要的决策支持分析过程。文中分析了what-if分析的研究现状,从不同的角度对what-if分析进行了分类。将其分为基于规则的what-if分析、基于delta表的差分数据存储与合并机制的what-if分析和基于CUBE增量维护方法的what-if分析三类,分析了各种实现方法的优点以及适用范围。给出了基于内存数据库的delta表模式的what-if分析算法和一种新的CUBE维护算法。最后对基于what-if分析的OLAP系统的未来研究方向进行了展望。
Data Warehouse and On-Line Analysiscal Processing (OLAP) are the key components of Decision Support System (DSS). What-if analysis focuses on analysis on hypothetical scenarios based on historical data. It is an important type of DSS analytical processing procedure, and can provide important predicting information for DSS users. This paper firstly surveys major related work of what-if analysis and then briefly discusses the classifications from different angles. The main contribution of this paper is to present the global classification of what-if analysis. Three classical prototypes of what-if analysis based on rules, what-if analysis based on delta table and what-if analysis based on incremental CUBE maintaining are analyzed. Also the advantage and disadvantage of different type of what-if analysis and applying boundary are discussed. The authors' recent research work of delta table based on Main-Memory Database and a new CUBE maintain algorithm are discussed to discovery new algorithms on advanced Main-Memory Database architecture. Finally the future work of what-if analysis is summarized.